Deal with a Devil
by SavSilvy
Summary: When mourning becomes too much for him, Hiro finds himself resorting to prayers and deals to bring back the brother he lost. The devil may have had pity on him but he never promised to let Hiro go unscathed. Featuring Sick Hiro and Protective Tadashi, friends and Aunt Cass.
1. Prologue

**First ever Big Hero Six fanfic whoop whoop! This one is an experiment. I have always written in the 3** **rd** **person POV but now I'm trying out the first person POV.**

 **This fanfic is unbeta-ed because I decided to keep it light. I will be focusing more of the relationship of the two brothers than anything else.**

 **Anyway enjoy!**

 _I would die for my brother._

When worded like that those words make me look like the most selfless person in the world but when I tried to look beyond that, when I tried to really understand how I felt did I realize that I wasn't at all selfless. On the contrary, I was selfish. I was the worst kind of selfish, the self-sacrificing kind that tries to justify all his or her actions and make it look like he's trying to protect people when all he's trying to do is protect himself from the emotional pain of loss, sadness and guilt.

Still, as all those events occurred one by one, the explosion, Tadashi's death, the funeral and my self-imposed house arrest, I still found myself repeating the same mantra again and again and again.

 _I would die for my brother. I would die for my brother. I would die for my brother._

 _I would die so my brother could live again._

I started to feel that I was denying something as I said those words but even, _I_ was denying that.

I was a robotics prodigy, an engineer, a scientist. I was supposed to be a realist and in reality, no one _ever_ goes back to life. What's dead is dead. _Whoever dies, stays dead._

But even with reality slapping my face every day as I wake up and see my older brother's empty bed, I still wanted to find a way to bring him back. I'd give up my life if I had to. And that made me selfless, selfless is good.

In the end, my "big brain" still wasn't enough to find a way to bring him back to life. I ended up relying on the religion Aunt Cass long ago tried to instill in us. Being a robotics prodigy, I learned early on that gods and science don't mix.

That _is_ until I realized the limitations of Science. _It can never bring anyone back to life._

And that was how I found myself on the way to an abandoned shrine in the outskirts of San Fransokyo. I know it was a bad idea when there were hundreds of other better shrines in the center of the city but that's the thing, _they're better._ Thus, more people would write messages then hang it in the wishing tree then god will have no time for my request.

Using a State-of-the-art GPS I invented a long time ago, I was able to run through all the possible shrines and wishing trees in San Fransokyo and the one which caught my attention was an abandoned one called 'Torihikiji', _temple of deals and bargains._

It took a total of sixteen stops, three train changes and a gazillion alleyways. After a while, I started to question if it was worth it. The area made my skin stand on end as I walked through it. It was late afternoon, the sun was still up yet I was getting the heebeejeebies. It was when I looked around did I realize that I was in a condemned part of town. The houses were dilapidated and abandoned, and the occasional buildings I passed were dark and gloomy, entrances were sealed shut. Others were taped shut with 'do not cross' tape and signs saying they were to be demolished soon.

If that temple and shrine _is_ in this area, that means it would be gone soon too.

 _So it's now or never._ I told myself as I made my way through the ghost town. I stopped in front of a small temple sandwiched between two houses. The kanji characters were fading but the 'ji' kanji for the temple and part of the 'hiki' were still readable.

The wishing tree was the first thing I noticed when I entered the temple. I decided to leave that for later though instead, I made my way to the shrine in the middle. I threw some spare change into the offertory box and went through the motions of the Japanese prayer.

Bow twice. Clap twice. Bow once. It has been a while since I've done that but to my surprise, I was still able to do it as if it were second nature to me.

"Bring my brother back. I'll give you anything, take my soul, my life, whatever. I just don't wanna have to live like this."

I don't really know if saying my prayers out loud would help me case but that was still worth a try. On my way out, I stopped by the wishing tree.

I knew there wouldn't be any more wooden plates to write my wish on so I brought a paper which already had my wish in block letters.

 **BRING HIM BACK. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M WILLING TO GIVE UP.**

I hung it on an empty part of the tree and bowed again before leaving the temple.

I was hoping and praying for a god to catch my attention on the way back. A sign that they got it, or at least a message. I should have known though from the start that these kinds of things have never happened and never will. Gods will never bring anyone back to life, especially for a mere mortal like me.

I made a run for the bedroom as soon as I arrived home. I was in no mood to be invited to dinner by my Aunt Cass. I was going to spend the next few hours scolding myself for losing my mind the past days, believing Tadashi would come back and actually going to a temple and requesting for such.

Before I knew it, I had scolded myself to sleep.

"I'm a minor Japanese deity that deals with well… _deals…_ " The voice then snickered, probably amused at his own idea of a pun.

It was only when this figure in a trench coat appeared to me was I able to put more thought into my surroundings. It was mostly darkness and blur around me. It made me dizzy to look anywhere other than the figure in front of me so eventually I gave up on looking at anything other than him. That was probably what he wanted anyway.

"So, you know what I want…" I managed to say.

"Trust me kid, you've been louder than a lot of my other clients."

"So this is real…"

"As real as the religious beliefs of an isolated monk, so… you want your brother back?"

I felt like my breath got caught in my throat. I couldn't really put into words how I felt at that point. I felt this surge of excitement and wonder but at the same time this horror and for some reason, I wanted to cry.

"Yes please!" I instinctively bowed at the figure. "What would you want in return though… My life?"

"You'd gladly give your life for your brother's, won't you? The self-sacrificing type?"

"Sorry, I don't feel like taking a life at the moment. Show me how much you want it."

My eyes widened in disbelief. If he didn't want my life, what did he want? Is there really more I can give?

"How much I want it? I want it so much, I have no words to describe it."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "I don't want words. I want action Hiro. You're Japanese, I'm pretty sure you know the ultimate position of self-deprecation…"

He didn't have to go on. I knew what he was talking about. I've seen Aunt Cass do it a few times, especially that one time someone found a roach in her salad. Aunt Cass had done the Dogeza then given them a year's supply of free meals. Tadashi had done it too once when he accidentally hit someone in the head with a soccer ball. I've screwed way more than them but my pride has never allowed me to kneel down and bow in that position and ask for a favor or forgiveness. It just wasn't me.

 _But really, what is thirty seconds in that position compared to a lifetime without Tadashi?_ I knelt down in front of him and bowed. " _Onegaishimasu."_

"That's more like it. I like you, kid and I really like what you're asking for, a far cry from the riches, the knowledge, power, revenge. So I'll be asking much less from you compared to an average client.

"So what _do_ you want?"

"I want your word."

"My what?"

"Your word?"

"Wait a minute…" I frowned. This thing was getting more and more frustrating by the minute.

"I swear an oath to- Repeat after me!"

" I swear an oath to…"

"Forget everything that happened as of now, move on with your life and pretend this conversation didn't happen.

"Forget everything that happened as of- Wait, what?" I looked up to see that the figure was gone and was replaced by this mini tornado that was quickly making its way to me.

There was no time to move. It swallowed me up and everything went black.

I woke up thrashing. I had the craziest and longest dream I could remember. An average person dreams at least five dreams a night but only remembers at the most two but, I remembered a lot.

I don't really know if they were actually five dreams or just a long one compressed into one.

It all started with a fire that killed Tadashi. There was this long period of depression, there was Tadashi's robot, I was a superhero then I ended up making a deal with this thing to bring my brother back to life. I sat up to see my brother getting ready his things for school.

"Wow, you actually woke up early. Guess you're that excited for your first day huh?" Tadashi gleefully said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

I climbed out of bed and out of instinct, ended up hugging my brother from behind.

"You okay Hiro?" My brother asked, looking taken aback by that sudden bout of affection.

I blushed. "Well, just had the craziest dream brother, you wouldn't believe what happened."

 **Feedback is appreciated! Should I continue this?**

 **Protective Tadashi and Hurt Hiro in the coming chapters**


	2. Autumn's Curse

**Thank you so much for the reviews! Wow! Five reviews overnight haha. Thank you all so much for the reviews and to the guest who asked the question about the book, no I didn't read it but thanks for the review!**

 **Author's Note: I decided to follow the school calendar of Japan. School starts early April there so that's around early spring. And, I'll be applying some head canons like Hiro's childhood asthma and him being scared of hospitals.**

I was never the type to be superstitious. I grew up with robots, math and science, not old wive's tales or legends but when Hiro told me about his dream, I couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable as he narrated it.

But actually, who wouldn't at the least be a little horrified to know that they died in a dream and were brought back to life because their little brother made a deal with some ominous creature. Who _wouldn't_ be worried to know that a family member whose safety means the world to them would be more than willing to sell his soul to Satan so that he could bring someone back to life?

We both got over it eventually since university took a lot of our time and attention. Hiro assimilated into the bustling university lifestyle pretty fast and I could see he was enjoying it.

He did his homework, attended classes and would always make time to meet up with me, Gogo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred after school. He would keep his high spirits until dinner time, never forgetting to tell Aunt Cass about the new professor who spent more time getting mad at students than actually teaching them, the one professor who always gave free cuts or some of his classmates who he would sometimes have casual bot fights with. For a while, life seemed perfect.

By late summer though, I started to notice things go downhill.

In SFIT, professors usually give major projects, the equivalent of a thesis, by summer break.

It was around that time when the walkways of SFIT would be empty except for the occasional pizza delivery man since everyone was either cooped up in their SFIT laboratories or at home working on it there. Hiro was quick to join them, locking himself up in the garage in the house, working on upgrading his microbots or working on blue prints in our room.

At first, I attributed his silence to the immense pressure he was probably feeling for being a child genius. It wasn't hard to believe. Hiro probably impressed a lot of professors with the microbot presentation he made the day he got the acceptance letter.

That was what I thought until he opened up to me one night though. He said he had been experiencing nightmares the past week. He never told me what they were about exactly, only vaguely mentioning how it was probably related to the dream he ad before the first day of school.

That revelation brought back the memories for both of us. _I_ only had the narration Hiro gave me to remember it as. Hiro, though, was probably reliving the whole thing. To think though that I was already that worried. If I felt like this, I don't think I could have imagined how my younger brother was feeling.

After that night, I started to understand his isolating himself a bit more. He was a genius and he knew it. With his attitude, he would never consider working his butt off days on end on useless homework. Hiro did that as a distraction, a way to keep his mind off the thoughts that were haunting him.

Aunt Cass and I still made attempts to talk to him though during the summer break. It started off with small talk. I'd pass by the garage, say a short hi and ask how his project was doing. Hiro only replied with one liners, it was always either an okay or good, sometimes the occasional "the reactors not working properly" or the "coding was wrong." After a while, he got fed up and ending up telling both me and Aunt Cass over dinner that he needed space.

Trying my best to be the good brother., I gave him his "desired space," convinced Aunt Cass to do the same and generally, I didn't talk to him unless he talked to me. That didn't mean that I wasn't keeping an eye on him anymore. On the contrary, I've been paying more attention to his actions lately. I noted his hours spent in the lab, in the room, his bedtime and how much he was eating which in fact was very alarming for someone who did as much as him.

He did not join us for a meal the whole summer so god knows what he was eating, more than twelve hours a day were spent in the garage and the rest was him sleeping.

There were times I felt so tempted to just tell him off, lock him out of the garage or drag him off to some place like the beach for the sake of bonding. It irked me to know that he was spending his summer cooped up in the house. Eventually though, I realized that obsessing over my brother was not healthy for me too, it meant that my brother wasn't really getting the 'space' he needed so in the end, I gave myself a break. I decided to hang out with my friends in SFIT first and start on my own major project to be submitted at the end of the year. Hiro may be going through all that but life still went on.

I wasn't expecting to regret that though when fall came around.

Along with the drop in temperature came flu season and the start of our second semester. We had both immersed ourselves in our own studies. For me, the work load was hectic, I was balancing eight classes a week, working on Baymax and still being able to talk to friends and family.

If it wasn't for Aunt Cass though, I wouldn't have noticed how much I wasn't really seeing.

"It's about Hiro…" She started as she handed me a plate of lasagna.

"Why?" I frowned in thought. When she brought it up, I started to feel my stomach turn. I had taken the 'give Hiro space' too seriously for my own good, more importantly his own good. I wanted to believe that eventually he did put his life back together as fall came around.

Aunt Cass's face though told me otherwise. "I'm worried about him."

"Has he been going to school?" I asked, as I noted that I haven't seen him much in the campus.

She nodded. "As soon as he gets home, it's straight to the garage or bedroom though."

With my hectic schedule, I would usually get home late and I would already see Hiro asleep on the bed.

"Does he eat?" I asked.

She sat on the chair and rested her face on her palms. "That's another thing, I don't think he's eating enough. All he'd eat is one bite sometimes or two."

I tried to recall the minimal times I saw Hiro this week. _Is_ _he losing weight?_ I thought to myself as if asking myself that will help me remember it. I started to feel another twinge of guilt when I realized that memories of Hiro recently have been blurry. _So much for a caring big brother._

"I'll call him down for dinner." I told Aunt Cass as I stood up and made my way to the bedroom. The only way I could make it up to my brother was to start over and try to be a good big brother again. First things first, I had to start talking to him again.

I opened the door to the room to see that it was dark, no lights were on and someone snoring. I followed the sound to see that it was coming from the lump on Hiro's bed which I was sure was him . I noted that it was only eight o'clock though. _Why is he in bed so early?_

"Hiro, you okay?" I asked as I went closer to his bed. It shamed me to say that this was the first time I actually gave him a closer look since summer. There really were signs that he was losing weight. His cheekbones were more prominent and there were bags under his eyes.

I was torn. Part of me wanted to wake him up and force him downstairs to eat. The other part of me wanted to let him rest because he looked too tired for someone who's only supposed to be fourteen years old.

 _I'll have a lot of time to talk to him tomorrow before school._ I told myself as I reached out to brush Hiro's bangs from his face.

All I intended to do was brush the bangs from his face then go back down to Aunt Cass and finish my salad. That plan went down the drain though when I felt Hiro's forehead.

 _He was burning._ From there, it looked like things got worse or, I was starting to notice more. The fever explained why Hiro was huddled in one side of the bed. It explained why he had the two pink spots on his pale cheeks. Most importantly, it explained the unnatural snoring.

Hiro was not snoring, _he was wheezing._ And as soon as I realize that, I was going through our closets muttering curse words to myself. _Where was his nebulizer, his asthma inhaler? For gods sake, why do I leave Baymax in SFIT?_ I mentally scolded myself for just putting it away just like that. He hadn't had an asthma attack in years though. So how _did_ it progress to this so fast.

After a few minutes, I started to accept the fact that the nebulizer and the inhaler were definitely not in the room.

 _What now?_ My head was swimming and I felt so lost. Do I go down to Aunt Cass and tell her about this or do I wake Hiro?

 _Or I could do both._ I wanted to bang my head against the wall for taking more than a few seconds to actually make up my mind. But at that point, I realized that I had absolutely no luxury of time.

"Aunt Cass!" I shouted to the door, before hurrying back to Hiro.

"Tadashi! Hiro! Are you guys okay up there?"

I heard Aunt Cass' footsteps as she climbed up the stairs. My eyes though were trained on my younger brother.

"Hiro. Open your eyes." I sat on Hiro's bed and cradled his head on my lap.

Among all the wheezes, he was still able to react with a short whine. That was a relief for me.

"Are you guys okay?

I looked behind me to see Aunt Cass in the doorway, her face a mixture of confusion and worry.

"The nebulizer. Did you throw it away?"

She shook her head. "No it's in the garage I think. Why? Is Hiro okay?" She narrowed her gaze on my younger brother.

"He can't breathe…"

"I really thought his asthma was gone for good…" She sighed. "Gimme a minute."

Hiro turned his head to the side, his face to my sweater. "Come on Hiro, open your eyes. Can you talk?"

Hiro nodded as he opened his eyes. He squeezed my hand and said something too softly for my ears to hear but seeing his lips move, I was able to make out what he was saying.

 _No hospital._ That wasn't the first time he told me that. That was the whole reason we bought the nebulizer in the first place. to save us a bunch of emergency room trips during Hiro's sick years.

"Don't worry, we've handled this many times. All we need is the nebulizer."

Hiro just shook his head and squeezed my hand. It was probably getting more painful for him.

I looked back to the doorway as If doing just that would magically cause Aunt Cass to appear. _Where is she?_

"Hiro you're gonna be okay, please don't panic."

He didn't talk, or more likely he probably couldn't. He just kept on shaking his head and squeezing my hand as if he was trying to tell me something important.

For a moment I was tempted to force it out of his mouth. It turned out I didn't need to because when I looked back, Aunt Cass was already there and looking like she was going to tear her hair out.

"Did one of you take apart the nebulizer?!"

"Hiro…" I looked back at my little brother to see that he was avoiding eye contact. In other words, he was guilty. "For a smart kid, you can do some really stupid things."I knew that He probably wasn't expecting the asthma to come back when he took apart the nebulizer. That didn't stop me from being pretty pissed off though.

I looked back to Aunt Cass, ignoring my younger brother's pleading look and hand squeezes. "Get the car keys , we're going to the emergency room."

 **The first half of the stories will be in Tadashi's or Aunt Cass' POV so not much mention on the deal and Hiro's dream. I will only be incorporating it again in the later chapters.**

 **So this is a sick fic with a supernatural twist basically. More of sick fic since I want to satisfy my Protective Tadashi and Hurt Hiro needs.**

 **It's a casual story so there's no beta but do tell me if you want more and I really wanna know what you think. If you can't think of anything to say, you can just leave an "update please." At least it lets me know that people are actually reading this. Also, do point out typos if you see some. I reread my chapters a few times before posting but sometimes I really do overlook some.**

 **Suggestions for stories (Any Big hero six story cravings?) are also welcome since I have no school till August so I'm pretty free. ^^**

 **One more thing, I made a community for hurt fics. If you wanna staff, PM me!**


	3. Mistaken

**Lol this took a while… Hope you enjoy! I guess?**

I hated 'Triage'. Sometimes I found it to be one of the dumbest things doctors ever made. Back then, when Hiro first started to have asthma, getting a doctor took almost an hour. When Hiro broke his arm, it took two. When he sprained his ankle, it took forever.

We all arrived to see that the emergency room was packed. The people on the chairs composed of those who were clutching limbs that were probably broken, some people putting tissue to bleeding wounds probably waiting for stitches and others who looked pale and sickly.

Some could have been there for hours and I braced myself for that type of wait at first. As soon as the nurses saw me though and their eyes focused to see the boy on my back, they understood. One of them ran to the back and came out again only a few seconds later with a stretcher, gesturing for me to lay him on it. It was only then was I able to get a good look at my brother and I started to see why they were so quick to treat him. His face was flushed yet his lips were turning a sick shade of purple which I knew too well from symptoms research for Baymax. His fever was high enough for him to start turning shades of red and at the same time he was not receiving enough oxygen.

That was quickly remedied though by the fact that a nurse had put an oxygen mask over his face and started pumping oxygen back into his lungs through the balloon attached to the mask while another nurse spent a little more than a minute pressing me and Aunt Cass for information and taking Hiro's temperature, oxygen stats and other numbers and pieces of information I didn't understand nor did I want to at that moment.

The only thing I could kinda be thankful for was the fact that Hiro decided to take apart his nebulizer. If he didn't, and we ended up using it, we probably wouldn't have been able to make it to the hospital in time.

It was only then too, when I started to see how worse off my little brother was did I realize the importance really of the triage. Back then, I was probably thinking only of how much pain Hiro was going through and how casually the doctors brushed off his case. I started to understand then why. Compared to what Hiro was going through, the pain, the difficulty breathing and his rising temperature, those past visits were nothing and I would have gladly traded this off for all three.

Back then, Hiro was in no danger of dying, just of being bored out of his wits and in pain but at this moment, if the triage were any slower, he probably would have gotten worse or suffered brain damage.

I watched as Aunt Cass followed the stretcher, noting which hallway they made a turn in before looking back at the other people on the waiting room chairs. I could see that some of them were frustrated by the fact that though we just arrived, my brother was their first priority. I couldn't blame them though, with the stress of having my younger brother in the emergency room, I probably gave a few dirty looks too.

I wanted to follow Aunt Cass so bad, to see how Hiro was as I stood there. Did he wake up? Was he in pain? I know I could have just followed her as they rushed through the halls but some force held me back. I couldn't point it out exactly. It just felt like I wasn't ready yet and when I made my way to one of the few empty chairs in the waiting room did I realize how rattled I really was. My knees practically buckled on their own as soon as I was near enough for the chair to catch me.

If I couldn't even handle an emergency room rush, I wonder how I'd handle actually seeing Hiro in my current state and more importantly, in his current state. I'd probably faint.

 _No. Be strong._ I told myself. More specifically, I scolded myself. I was the older brother yet here I was chickening out. Actually not just then, I've been such a coward the past few weeks, ignoring him, giving the silent treatment he asked for, not even bothering to give him a second look or thought. Because of that, it had come to this point where Hiro could actually die and I was still thinking about myself. _What a great big brother I'm turning out to be._

I was scared to go to him yet I also knew that that was the only thing I could give him at that moment. If I were really sorry, I would be there. Hiro needed me and if the roles were reversed, I'm sure I would need my brother too. Hiro probably would have braved through all the blood and stress to actually be there with me if _I_ were the one rushed to the hospital.

With one trembling hand on the arm rest and with my knees threatening to collapse inwards, I forced myself up. From my peripherals, I saw people's eyes on me, I could feel their stares. They might be thinking I'm melodramatic, some might still be pissed about my brother going first in triage, others might have actually been sympathizing with me as I stood up. At that point though, those stares really didn't mean anything anymore. The only thing that mattered was my brother who was going through god-knows-what inside one of those rooms. And I had to be there for him. I had to know what was happening. I had to contribute at least something useful during this ordeal.

I had already managed to bring myself over to the hallway where the stretcher made a right not to long ago when I saw Aunt Cass making her way towards me.

She didn't say anything at first. She just looked at me and shook her head.

"Aunt Cass…" I managed to mouth. _What's wrong? Is my brother okay?_

"Cafeteria. We need to talk." She said.

"Wait… Hiro…" I said as I looked at the line of doors in the corridor, wondering which room my brother was probably being checked in.

"Hiro's fine. Cafeteria. Let's go." Aunt Cass walked past me, not even bothering to look back or even add any more detailed answers to my frantic question.

Whatever Aunt Cass wanted to talk about in the cafeteria must have been really serious. The way she handled it was too calm, too circumspect, _too reserved,_ a far cry from her candid way of dealing with Hiro's bot fight shenanigans.

That scared me. That meant that aunt Cass was actually trying to figure out something and that meant that something was really wrong.

I had lived under my aunt for a good ten years and I knew that when she gets like that, you have to work with her timing. If you want something from her when she's at that state, you have to wait for her to give it. Trying to get things out of her at those times would be like trying to squeeze juice out of a tennis ball. It just won't happen.

There was no use flogging a dead horse so all I could do as she made her way to the cafeteria was quietly and obediently follow her.

The cafeteria was empty, something I wasn't expecting coming from a crowded emergency room. I looked at the clock to see that it was quarter to ten.

 _No wonder._ We were two hours late for dinner. Aunt Cass made me find a table as she went off to one of the counter to buy some food. She didn't really asked what I wanted, probably not wanting to waste her time since she most likely knew that I was going to answer with an "anything" or a "not hungry." I couldn't blame her though. This was no time for coaxing food orders out of family members.

She came back a few minutes later with two melon buns and a can of milk tea and coffee cup.

"No milk tea for you." She said as she handed me the bun and the milk tea. "You have school tomorrow. I wouldn't want you to be groggy during class.."

"I'll be fine. I'm willing to wait as long as we need too." I said as I tore open the wrapping of the melon pan. "What time _are_ they discharging him?"

All of Hiro's other emergency room visits, whether it be asthma or a stupid injury lasted at the most eight hours. More often than not, we were back home by the wee hours of morning or even earlier. I already knew when I saw the blue in Hiro's lips that the question wasn't "what time." It was more of a "when," "how long," or "will they ever" but I guess through all that, I wanted to inculcate a sense of normalcy, no matter how small to the whole ordeal.

She shook her head, "Not for a while…" She, then took a bite of her bread and gave me a wry smile. "To think that I'm actually thankful Hiro decided to take a part his nebulizer."

"How bad was it?" I managed to ask as I felt something dig into the pits of my stomach. _Did I really want to know the answer to this?_

"He has a forty degree fever. They put him on a ventilator and he's being admitted to the ICU."

 _ICU… Forty degrees… Ventilator…_ "Why are we not with him? Why did you drag me to the cafeteria? We should be with him!" I yelled as I slammed the table. I wasn't angry. Even if I slammed the table hard enough to spill half her coffee and even if I was practically seeing red, how I felt was more of surprise than anything else. I knew when we entered the hospital that Hiro was in bad shape but it never occurred to me that it was ICU 'bad', ventilator 'bad'. I was expecting admission bad, recover-at-home-for-one-week 'bad' and oxygen-mask bad at the most. I didn't expect it to be bad enough for them to have to shove a tube down his throat and have a machine breathe for him. _Satan just loves reminding me about how much of a great brother I am._

I quickly finished my bread and gulped down my milk tea. "What's his room number? I'll go on ahead." I asked, not bothering to look up at my aunt.

"I think we should go home first actually, you should go to school tomorrow morning."

"What?" _Did I just hear her correctly?_ I put a finger inside my ear and started at her in disbelief.

"It's Friday tomorrow. Finish whatever you have to do that last day and after that we'll do some investigation, some explanations, hire a lawyer if we have to." Aunt Cass went on as she crumpled her wrapper putting it inside her coffee cup.

"I don't understand. Investigations? Explanations? Lawyers?" _Since when did medicine become law?_ I asked myself as I mentally went through my own research for Baymax, not much legalities other than the patent.

"In the car." She said, as she gestured for me to follow her. Her tone once again was that reserved one I could never argue against. It was difficult but I was still able to pacify the monster inside me wanting to squeeze every bit of information out of her and to run upstairs to the ICU and force myself into Hiro's room.

After what felt like a millennia, we did make it to the car. She held a poker face and she was silent yet one who knows her well could still see how tense she was. It was in the way she unconsciously slams the door whenever she's stressed or not too aware of her surroundings. For a while I wondered how she was going to drive us safely in the dark when she was bottling up that much stress. I actually considered offering to drive but when I thought about it for a second longer, I realized that if she were stressed, I was a wreck.

My aunt entered the car and suddenly slammed her head in the steering wheel. "Close the door." She ordered.

"You going to tell me why we can't see Hiro now?" I asked as I slammed the door shut.

"Yeah, might as well tell you now." She muttered mostly to herself. She took a deep breath and sat up, looking at me. "Sorry though, about making you wait before I tell you this I'm just not comfortable talking about this in a public area." She said as she put the key in the ignition. She paused for a while as she backed the car up and made her way out of the parking lot. "Okay… How do I start…"

I watched as my aunt looked around for a while and muttered unintelligible things. I kept my eyes on the road, counting the street lamps that went by to distract myself and more importantly to stop myself from strangling my aunt who was just making it more painful as she delayed the inevitable.

"As soon as they brought Hiro to the exam room… A doctor arrived and did a full body exam." She started after around five minutes of semi-inner monologues and making her way around bends and turns. "They found a lot of bruises covering his chest and back. _A lot._ " She looked at me as she widened her eyes in emphasis. "Enough for someone to suspect abuse."

I felt my stomach drop two meters lower. "So you're saying…"

"Yep, apparently, if the San Fransokyo justice system gets any dumber, we might be charged with child abuse."

 **I wrote that last part with my angry mom at my back every now and then telling me to sleep so there may be some minor mistakes. Do point them out if you see them?**

 **Thank you for all the reviews I have received for this fic! They really do mean a lot!**

 **Anyway, I'd really love to reply to all my reviews but I promise I'll do it for this chapter. Do tell me what you think in that little box below. As always even an "update please" will do. Or dear lord, even jjust a smiley hahah.**


	4. Secrets

**Lol, so school started but I finished this chapter. Once again, thank you for all the reviews. I wasn't able to reply to the later ones cause I was too busy finishing this chapter. Dammm I hope it makes up for the long wait?**

I'm pretty sure I didn't drink caffeine the night before but still, I barely got any sleep. I went through my last school day of the week roaming the halls like a ghost and attending classes but not listening nor caring. The only thing I actually willed myself to do was to stare straight ahead as to look like I was still thinking of what we my professor was talking about during the lecture, something about cracking programming codes. My mind though was cracking a different kind of code.

 _Abuse._ The code word was simple yet so hard to understand.

I got the best grades in class, solved many of the programming codes the professors gave us in quizzes, tests and homework, did the coding for Baymax all by my own hand but here I was, kept up late at night trying to figure out where the bruises around Hiro's body came from and what the doctor was thinking when he accused me and Aunt Cass of beating up Hiro. Actually, scratch that last part. The accusations didn't bother me at all, they could think all they wanted to think. All I wanted was a chance to see Hiro and to find out who _was_ beating my brother up so I could rip up their arms and beat them up _with_ it.

It was no time for school. I had harder codes to crack.

At first, I was planning on sneaking out. All I had to do was walk to the train station, take the train bound for San Fransokyo General and go out at the proper stop. Aunt Cass didn't need to find out and, when she does find out, it would probably be too late for me to go back to school anyway. I had already gotten my bag from my locker and was half way out, about to go through with my plan when I heard someone calling my name behind me. I looked back to see one of my classmates from the last class.

"Did you forget? We have to talk about our end of the year project." He asked as he jogged to keep up with me. After he said that, it started to sink in that I'd be ditching two extra classes and a group meeting if I leave.

 _Just go through your schoolwork, we'll figure it out when you get home._ Aunt Cass's words that morning echoed in my mind. "Yeah, school work…" I muttered to myself as I turned to him. "No, I didn't forget I just think it's too early for us to start. We have two months to do it."

"Too early? You're the one who suggested we start on it now." He widened his eyes in surprise and I swore I could also catch a glimpse of annoyance there.

I mentally slapped myself. _Is this really how far I fell in the span of one night?_ I really had to admit then, Hiro being hospitalized was really taking its toll on me. "Listen, you guys go ahead and start on it, I kinda have to leave, I have some stuff to finish."

He glared accusingly at me. "So you're just gonna ditch?"

The accusation in his tone stung. I was the one nagging at everyone to never be late let alone miss group meetings, do their job, tell them off for doing nothing and basically do all the leading but in the first meeting for one of the biggest projects of that semester, I was planning to ditch.

"How long will the meeting be? I guess I could stay a while." I brought out my phone to check the time, _11:24_ was written on top but that wasn't what got my intention. It was the message under:

 _Aunt Cass_

 _Hiro's in surgery, get here as soon as you can._

I felt my stomach drop a few feet. "Actually I really can't stay." I pocketed my phone, slung my bag over my shoulder and ran. I heard him shout, trying to catch my attention. He was shouting, probably threatening me with a low grade or guilt tripping me. My mind was no longer there though, completely incapable of stringing those words together, too focused on picturing Hiro in surgery. _Surgery for what?_ If I texted Aunt Cass then, I'd be wasting time and who knows whether she'd reply or not. She was probably as distraught as me. Instead, I focused all my physical and mental energy on getting to the hospital as soon as possible.

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Three train transfers and a hundred train stops later, I was rushing through the lobby of the hospital, making my way through the front desk.

"Hamada." I managed to say between exhales and inhales. "Hiro Hamada." I repeated as soon as I gained more control of myself.

The woman at the information desk, typed a few things on her computer. "Hiro Hamada…" She stopped her typing and looked up at him. "No visitors allowed apparently. All inquiries to Doctor Nielson."

"He's my brother. I'm _immediate family."_ I said, putting stress on the last two words, those magic words were a hundred times more effective than a _please_ during hospital visits.

"Doctor's orders." She said. "I could call him if you want."

"No, it's fine." I pulled out my phone from my pocket and dialed Aunt Cass' number, silently praying that she wouldn't take too long to answer.

One ring. Then another.

"Tadashi! Where are you?"

I felt the thumping of my heart ease when I heard her voice. "What floor's Hiro?" I asked as I made my way to the stairs. "I'm in the lobby." I added at the last second.

"Third floor, in-house patient surgery waiting room. I'm just outside, not too hard to spot."

"Alright, on my way." I hung up the phone, bracing myself to climb the stairs. When in a hospital, the stairs were always the faster way up since hospital elevators were incredibly slow for the sake of transporting patients. In less than a minute of running up stairs, I was out of breath but more importantly, I arrived in the third floor.

I followed the signs and hallways until eventually I reached the end of the hall and through the glass walls of the waiting room, I saw Aunt Cass talking to a doctor. Her back was to me so from where I stood, I did not have much of an idea of what they were talking about but I knew I had to find out.

I forced the glass doors open and made my way to the two of them. "How's he?" I asked as I sat on the chair beside Aunt Cass.

The doctor looked to me. "My name is Dr. Neilsen and you must be Tadashi Hamada?" He said as he brought out his hand for me to shake.

I thought it was no time for formalities but for the sake of compliance, I chose to return that gesture. "So…" I said, hinting for him to continue.

"There was a buildup of fluid in his lungs, some blistering and his lung partially collapsed. They've drained the fluid, treated the blisters in his lungs and are closing him up as we speak. What I was explaining to your aunt just now is that the doctors have been having a hard time treating the blisters. There was excessive bleeding, a sign that the blood's not clotting properly but that also means that we now know where the bruises are from."

"They withdrew all accusations Tadashi." Aunt Cass said as she gave me a relieved look. I noticed her unkempt hair and the dark circles under her eyes. She probably couldn't sleep last night too because of those accusations.

That relief lasted less than ten seconds because as the doctor continued to talk, Aunt Cass and I realized that the problem was far from over.

"We took some blood for testing. We're hoping that what we're dealing with here is just a simple blood disorder and pneumonia caused by fatigue but we have to be prepared for worse diagnoses." The doctor continued.

"Like what…" I asked, not even bothering to raise my voice in question. Staying seated and sane was taking too much energy already.

I watched the doctor closely as he took a deep breath, looking nervously at me and my aunt. I was neither stupid nor ignorant when it came to medicine and I knew what those 'worse diagnoses' could be. I just didn't want to think about it or say it for fear that it might come true.

We waited silently as the doctor twiddled his thumbs, looking as if he were deep in thought.

Suddenly, the vibration of a phone rang through the silence, bringing us all back to reality.

"Hiro's in recovery now." The doctor said as he checked his phone. "We can continue our conversation there. " He added, relief evident in his voice.

We followed him out of the waiting room and through the winding hallways of the hospital, I stayed silent yet occasionally sneaking glances at Aunt Cass, whose face looked like it had been stuck in worried thought for a while already.

"Here we are." The doctor said as he opened the double doors, introducing us to a different part of the floor. Notably, the sides were all partitioned with curtains leaving only the hallway for anyone passing through. Some of the curtains were open, showing empty beds and unused machines while some others were closed, probably so recovering patients could have their privacy.

I heard the doctor say my brother's name softly as he opened the curtain of one bay. At first I thought he was saying as a note to himself. It was when I got a more complete view of the bay did I understand that he was talking to the nurse by Hiro's bed.

She was a petite brunette, who looked like she just finished fiddling with my brother's IV. She looked up attentively at Doctor Nielsen and nodded her head. "We'll have him brought back to the room in a few minutes."

"For these kinds of surgeries, we'd normally recommend that he stays here overnight. An ICU room is more equipped to handle his case though so we'll have him taken back to the room earlier than normal." The doctor explained.

I nodded blankly at the doctor then turned my attention to my brother on the bed, noting the tubes and wires attached to almost every part of his body and the oxygen mask over his face. "What are those for?" I muttered, mostly to myself.

"Which one?" The doctor asked.

"Everything…" I added as I gestured my hands around the whole picture of Hiro in the hospital bed.

"The catheter is standard procedure for bedridden patients." The doctor started.

My eyes followed the wires running to my brother's body as he continued explaining. There was the IV inserted in his right hand for antibiotics, the oxygen mask over his face, apparently they wanted to stick with the ventilator but for his case it was doing more harm than good. There were the wires, monitoring his heart rate and the oximeter over his index finger to monitor oxygen saturation levels. Those were the usuals for most hospitalizations. There was a rare addition, I had to note. My stomach turned as I took a closer look.

Under Hiro's armpit was a tube sticking out. "Leading to his lungs" The doctor said. "It will drain fluid from around the chest cavity and will help reinflate thereafter."

 _He looks like a robot._ I thought to myself. I urged myself to calm down as I took in the scene in front of me, imagining Hiro waking up with all that. _How would he react?_

"Is it painful?" Aunt Cass beat me to the question that nagged in my mind.

"We'll give him something to manage the pain when he wakes up…" He started

" _So it is painful?_ " Aunt Cass repeated, her eyes narrowed at the doctor.

He bit his lip and nodded.

The curtain opened once again and another nurse entered with a stretcher, saying something inaudible to the brunette nurse who was tinkering with my brother's IV not too long ago. Even in the silence of the hospital room, I couldn't make out most of what they're saying. They were probably so used to the silent and professional atmosphere of the hospital to be able to carry soft yet urgent conversations like that.

I tried to make out a few words of what they were saying as they talked between each other.

 _Stretcher… We should disconnect it… An extra tube… It's standard protocol…_ Some words were audible but for some reason or the other, the words and phrases I picked up were completely different ideas that I couldn't piece together at all. Eventually, I just resigned myself to the fact that if I did want to know what they were talking about, I had to ask them myself. With that thought in mind, I exited the bay, making my way back to the waiting room.

I collapsed on the nearest chair and rested my chin on my hands, trying to focus my thoughts on better things. _As soon as Hiro gets discharged from the hospital, what could we do together? It was my fault, Hiro was there in the first place so I really think I owed him a lot. Maybe watch his favorite movie with him? Would Aunt Cass allow us to go on a trip somewhere like the country side, probably be easier for him to recover his strength then. Better bring it up to her when she comes back_. I smiled to myself as I imagined us Hamadas on the road _. If work doesn't get busy, Aunt Cass could even come too. But would Hiro have the strength though for long hours on the road._ My good thoughts left as quickly as they came. Before I knew it, my thoughts were darker than before. _Does he blame me at all for getting him sick? Could I really make up for all the pain, his sickness is causing him now?_

"Tadashi… Tadashi!"

I jerked my head up, an instinctive reaction to my name being called from nearby. "Aunt Cass…" I whispered as I saw my aunt who was seated on the chair in front of mine, giving me a worried look.

"We're going to wait first as they take him back up to the ICU. They'll call us when he's settled." She explained. "Did you have lunch already? It's almost one."

I shook my head. "I came here as soon as you texted."

"Alright, we'll get something in the hospital café." She stood up, pulling me with her as she did. "Doctor Neilsen went to get some paperwork in his office and he said he'll meet us there."

" _Discharge paperwork?"_ I asked. It was a fat chance but even then, I still found myself hoping that she was nodding.

Instead, aunt Cass gave me a comforting smile and squeezed my arm lightly, like how she usually did when I got stressed or nervous back in grade school. "Tadashi, you know he's too sick to go home now. Let's pray he'll be able to go home by next week."

 _Next week…_ Usually hospital stays are _at the most_ a week, to think that in this case, it's _at the least_ one week. "How sick _is_ he?" I asked, my voice laced with more frustration than I had wanted to show before I said it.

"That's why we're having lunch with Doctor Nielsen. We need to discuss him. Apparently, they want to keep him a few days longer for some tests." She said as she put her arm around my back and guided me out of the room.

 _So it's just the tests._ Somewhat, I felt relieved to know that his long hospital stay was not all because of his pneumonia. I looked back at my aunt and made the effort to return her smile. We were both feeling hopeful, or at least looking like it. The best time to probably suggest it. "After that, I feel like we should do something though, go on a family trip?" I started.

She widened her eyes in surprise. "What about school?"

"It can wait a few days. I just want Hiro to recover his strength in some place where there's actually fresh air like the countryside. It'll probably be better in the long run too." I explained.

Hiro loved vacations I knew that but would he like it in a place where there aren't too much robots or and technology in general. _Well… He did enjoy the beach._ I thought. Even if I were his brother of fourteen years, I still found myself trying to imagine Hiro, reacting to my suggestion.

I continued telling Aunt Cass of my plans as we walked there. The latter listened giving suggestions every now and then, suggesting that we go fishing or berry picking, something we could easily bond over. I could see the relief and enthusiasm in her eyes as she moved on to planning how she would cook our fish and the berries. Eventually, she ended up more enthusiastic than me. I couldn't blame her though. It must've been hard having to put up with the cold war between me and my brother the past few months. That was another thing for me to feel guilty for. I was too immersed in school, I didn't even consider how Aunt Cass felt about what had been happening. At the rate that this was going, I should be paying for five of those out of town trips.

"Doctor Nielsen!" Aunt Cass quickened her pace as she saw the doctor sitting on a booth by the entrance of the café. I quickly followed her, not bothering to hide the fact that I too, wanted to know what the doctor wanted to talk about.

"We should order first." The doctor said as he pushed the folder that was in front of him to the corner of the booth. He then grabbed a menu from the rack to the side and read through it.

"What do you two plan on ordering?" He asked.

I looked two my side to see Aunt Cass biting her lip as she read the prices on the menu. I knew this was a splurge for her since the prices ranged from twenty dollars to fifty dollars and seeing that we had Hiro's hospital bill to think of too. I looked back at the menu. Instead of looking at the food though, I was looking at the prices, scanning for something below twenty dollars. "I'll take the Bolognese pasta." I said as I focused my eyes on the price. _17 dollars. Still painful but not as painful as 50 dollar steak._ I thought to myself, I then turned to Aunt Cass who unsurprisingly, decided to order the same thing as me.

"All right, I'll call the waiter." The doctor said as he raised his hand signaling for a waiter to come. In less than ten seconds, a waiter was at our table taking orders. We both watched patiently as the doctor repeated our orders to the waiter, adding his order of the fifty dollar steak.

As soon as the waiter left though, it was back to business. The doctor slid the papers from the side and to the middle of the table. These are for you, Hiro's legal guardian.

"What are these tests?" Aunt Cass asked as she opened the folder and scanned through the papers.

I looked over my aunt's shoulder but was only able to make out the general contents of the waiver as she scanned through them.

"Hiro's initial symptoms were fatigue and fever, made worse by infection. These three alone are supposedly treatable at home. He has a history of asthma too so with that hospital care _is_ really needed. The alarming thing is how quickly he deteriorated from that. We gave him the steroids and the antibiotics but he wasn't responding as quickly as we had hoped, giving us the notion that he might be immune compromised."

"Immuno compromised?" Aunt Cass repeated as she knitted her brows.

"Basically, his immune system, which is supposed to fight infection, isn't doing their job well." He explained. "And with the bruising around his bodies and the spontaneous blistering in his lungs, it's safe to assume that his platelets aren't doing their job too. We're guessing it's a blood disorder here so during the surgery, I had them take some blood for testing. We'll be getting the results within the day but in case it does come back positive, I need your consent so we can perform the other tests as soon as possible."

I heard the urgency in the man's voice and watched closely as he fiddled with the tablecloth as he talked. He was nervous, uncomfortable. Asking for a consent for a battery of tests doesn't usually make a doctor nervous. _He wasn't saying everything._ I asked as I took some of the papers Aunt Cass was looking through and read through them.

 _Bone Marrow Biopsy, Lumbar Puncture…_ I did enough research on Baymax to know what these were for. "You're testing for cancer?"

He didn't even need to say a word. I could see it all in his eyes, or in the way he was trying to avoid our gaze with it.

For a moment, I felt the world move faster than usual, as if someone just got a TV remote and clicked fast forward. I knew that that was physically impossible though. The world moves one second at a time and it's never gonna get faster nor slower but I just felt my life stop before me when the doctor in front of me, confirmed all my fears with a reluctant nod.

Hiro wasn't going to get his vacation soon. Heck, he probably wasn't going to get his life back anytime soon.

 **I actually thought out the perfect twists and hidden depths so with all the hurt and comfort there will be a devil and there will be more deals. I plan on bringing Gogo, Fred, Honey Lemon and Wasabi out soon so just you wait :D**

 **Updates might be so slow since this is not my main story but you can leave a review telling me what you think and hopefully that can give some inspiration to write.**

 **Just do tell me what you think! (and if there are any mistakes I made )**


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